by Rebecca Wilder German industry is plugging away. Ending in August, the 3-month average of the seasonally- and calendar-day adjusted volume of industrial production (excluding construction) maintained a quick 8.3% annualized pace. Even if this core measure of industrial activity falls another 1% in September, the Q3 quarterly annualized pace would be 10.5% – a […]

This piece offers an understandable comparison between wages and dividend income and neatly summarizes the cost to wage earners. (h/t Mike Kimel) by Peter S. Meyers Myers Urbatsch PC A Warm Wind At the Backs of Some, Generated Off the Backs of Others Yesterday, I learned in this Mother Jones article that workers have increased […]

by Linda Beale Herman Cain, funded by Koch Bros, Says “Let the Little Guys Pay Taxes (not the uber-rich) The New York Times’ “Room for Debate” ran a ‘mini-op-ed’ segment on Herman Cain’s 9-9-9 tax plan, called “What’s So Bad About a Flat Tax?” New York Times (Oct. 14, 2011) (with the subtitle: Isn’t Herman […]

By Michael Halasy Super Committee and GME funding SO, about that super committee. Surely you remember, the gang of 12 that was created by the showdown over the debt ceiling this summer. Well, they’re hard at work but among the proposals out there, is one that is causing some grave concerns. As a health workforce […]

An op-ed in the Washington Post points to an idea worth exploring: For all the talk of populist foment – the Tea Party on the right and the new Occupy Wall Street movement on the left – business interests remain firmly in control. Forced to choose between their voters and their donors, lawmakers don’t hesitate […]

by Dale Coberly WHAT KOTLIKOFF (REALLY) SAID Larry Kotlikoff responded to my post in comments (Social Security: It’s Just Math). by saying that I (coberly) “wrote quite a lot about something I [Kotlikoff] didn’t really say.” He has a point. I based my speculations about where he obtained his misleading numbers on an NPR summary […]

OMB Watch points us to the idea that: Financial Taxes Can Raise Revenues, May Help Stabilize Markets The congressional Super Committee, tasked with forging a $1.2 trillion deficit reduction package by Thanksgiving, is currently deliberating on which revenues — if any — to raise and to include in its plan. With Wall Street at the […]

by Linda Beale Barney Frank and the need for a risk-based bank fee That post about the McCain-Paul environmental devastation and revenue decimation bill (somehow mistakenly given the label of a “jobs bill” by the misguided pair ) suggests the unprecedented extent to which our Congressional reps now believe they can use and abuse national […]